Duplicity

A Critics' Award for the L.A. Times' Kenneth Turan:

Duplicity Filmmaker Tony Gilroy has become a master of modernized tradition. The writer of all three "Bourne" films and the writer-director of "Michael Clayton," he has a gift for updating classic Hollywood forms with smart and sophisticated contemporary touches. In "Duplicity" he's taken two of the biggest stars around, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, and put them into what is essentially "Michael Clayton Lite." A throwback to the days of old-school caper movies like "To Catch a Thief," "Duplicity" is the kind of sophisticated amusement that's always in short supply.

Synopsis of "Duplicity"
CIA officer Claire Stenwick (Roberts) and MI6 agent Ray Koval (Owen) have left the world of government intelligence to cash in on the highly profitable cold war raging between two rival multinational corporations. Their mission? Secure the formula for a product that will bring a fortune to the company that patents it first. For their employers—industry titan Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) and buccaneer CEO Dick Garsik (Paul Giamatti)— nothing is out of bounds. But as the stakes rise, the mystery deepens and the tactics get dirtier, the trickiest secret for Claire and Ray is their growing attraction. And as they each try to stay one double-cross ahead, two career loners find their schemes endangered by the only thing they can’t cheat their way out of: love.

Cast: Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti
Director: Tony Gilroy
Genres: Caper, Drama
Opened March 20, 2009 Runtime:2 hr. 5 min.

Show times for "Duplicity" from Fandango.com

Coraline

Betsy Sharkey gives a Critics' Award to "Coraline", who writes of the film:

The other mother. The other father. Who among us hasn't in some dark and frustrated moment wished for that "other" life? The one we imagine filled with beauty, where nothing goes wanting, and is populated by those "other" people, the ones who are everything we want them to be rather than their disappointing real selves. That is the haunting world of "Coraline," very much a fairy tale for an adult sensibility, in which animation and wistful thinking dance a spellbinding and frightening web of possibilities. Director Henry Selick's stop-motion film, lingering still in a few local theaters, is a visual feast.

Synopsis of "Coraline" from Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
A young girl walks through a secret door and discovers a parallel reality that is eerily similar to the life she already knows, yet deeply unsettling in a number of ways, in director Henry Selick's animated adaptation of Neil Gaiman's international best-seller. Eleven-year-old Coraline Jones (voice of Dakota Fanning) is fearlessly courageous, and perhaps far too adventurous for her own good. Coraline and her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) have recently relocated to Oregon from Michigan. Bored in her new home since her parents are distracted by work and she has yet to make any new friends, Coraline passes the time by exploring her new neighborhood with an annoying local boy named Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr.). But after paying a visit to her eccentric neighbors Miss Spink (Jennifer Saunders) and Miss Forcible (Dawn French), a pair of aging British actresses, and crossing paths with the outright weird Mr. Bobinsky (Ian McShane), the precocious young girl becomes convinced that her new surroundings are just as dull as she'd initially suspected. Shortly thereafter, Coraline discovers a hidden door in her new house, and decides to investigate. Venturing into the eerie passageway inside, Coraline emerges into an alternate version of her own reality. At first glance, this strange new world seems even better than the real thing; there her parents aren't distracted by work, and Coraline is always the center of attention. There's even a mysterious Cat (Keith David) that's fascinated by her every move. But when Coraline's button-eyed Other Mother (also Hatcher) attempts to make her stay permanent, the frightened young girl must summon her resourcefulness and bravery in order to find her way back home and save her real family.

Can't wait for the DVD? Then see here if Corline is showing at a theater near you

Opened February 6, 2009 Runtime:1 hr. 40 min.
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Ian McShane, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders
Director: Henry Selick
Genres: Children's Fantasy, Fantasy

Moscow, Belgium

Kenneth Turan gives an LA Times Critics' Choice award to Moscow, Belgium:

Moscow, Belgium" is as wonderfully contradictory as its title. A realistic romantic comedy with considerable raffish charm and a great spirit, it looks at love's struggles with an offbeat but very human eye... A success at Cannes' Critics' Week last year, "Moscow, Belgium" wouldn't be the film it is without the bravura performance of star Barbara Sarafian, who is so good that the Minsk Film Festival created a special award in her honor: "special recognition for personification of a modern woman." Yes, it's a mouthful, but it pretty much says it all... As those film jurors in Minsk realized, it's Sarafian who brings this film down to earth. With a face that is close to magical, able to believably express everything from joy to jagged rage, she won't allow this film to stray into Fantasyland. Turan's review of "Moscow, Belgium"

Synopsis Moscow, Belgium
Matty is a no-nonsense, working class, 41-year-old mother of three, with a thousand yard stare whose life seems to come apart after a minor collision with a Belgian truck transporting Italian lollipops. The 29-year-old redhead driver Johnny has not only bruised her car but also her sense of self. Not only is Johnny uneducated, balding and a dozen years younger, it also turns out that he has an alcohol problem, a criminal record and a fondness for cheesy lyrics. Meanwhile, her art teacher husband Werner is trying to work out whether he prefers Matty to one of his 22-year-old students, while their three children are trying to figure out where they stand in relation to the opportunities and pratfalls of puberty. As Johnny worms his way into the heart of Matty and the lives of the other members of this dysfunctional, but lovable, family, it becomes clear that everyone has a right to happiness but that this right can be reached only by making choices, which are not always easy.

Cast: Barbara Sarafian, Jurgen Delnaet, Johan Heldenbergh, Anemone Valcke, Sofia Ferri
Director: Christophe Van Rompæy
Genres: Romantic Comedy, Comedy

Showtimes for Moscow, Belgium at Fandango.com